ISSUE №7 · TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2026
Got this from a firm owner recently:
“That's one I've struggled with. If I undercharge because they brought in something new I didn't know when I sent the proposal (invested in a PTP, sold a property) I have no problem adjusting the price after the return is done. But occasionally I'll come across one I just whiffed on- I knew the scope and just under budgeted. I struggle with adjusting things then so I'll usually just write off the difference, but I keep a spreadsheet and will update it so I price accordingly next year and will list specifics why it's going up.”
Here's what I'd say to him.
He's already good at this. When the scope changes (a PTP shows up, a property sells, something lands on the return that wasn't on the table when he quoted), he adjusts the price without a second thought. He's done it plenty of times. The exact conversation he's calling hard is one he already has, cleanly, on a regular basis!
The block only appears when the wrong number was his.
So this was never really about pricing, and it was never about the client. It's that re-quoting his own miss feels like admitting he got something wrong, and somewhere along the way he decided that once he says a number out loud, he's not allowed to change his mind. A scope change hands him permission: he can point to the new thing and say "this wasn't in the original." A plain “whiff” gives him nothing to point to except himself. He feels like he can’t justify it, so he swallows it.
And look at what he does instead. He writes off the difference and logs it in a spreadsheet so he can charge correctly next year. He knows the right price! He has it written down! He just decided that this year, he'll pay the gap himself, a fine for being human enough to under-budget. That spreadsheet a record of every time he absorbed a cost that he was absolutely allowed to pass on.
I did this too, for many, many years. But let's do the math, because the math is the part we keep skipping. Say he misquotes six returns a year and say the average miss is $500. That's $3,000 he handed back over twelve months, to clients who never asked for the discount and will never know they got one. Run it forward five years: fifteen thousand dollars of work, done for free, one "I'll just eat it" at a time. And he doesn't even have to estimate because the number is sitting in his spreadsheet right now!
Then there's the worst-case math… the scary numbers we never finish running. Let’s imagine he re-quotes, and tells the client $2,000 instead of $1,000, and explains why. Worst case? The client is annoyed. Maybe even leaves, mid-season, which feels catastrophic in March. It’s awkward. You feel badly for upsetting the client. You hate when someone is mad at you. But play it all the way out… a client leaves over a fair, explained adjustment, finds someone else to do their return, and is FINE. And the firm owner doesn’t do the work for half its value. Also, he doesn’t have to carry resentment into next year. The leaving client is the worse outcome only if you stop the math early!
And here's what's true about his clients, and yours: they trust you. They know you're not the type to take advantage of them, which is exactly why a re-quote from you reads as honest instead of as a hustle. A reasonable explanation earns a reasonable response! You know this, because you'd give one. If your accountant said, "I underestimated this one, here's the corrected fee and here's what I missed," you wouldn't think you were being ripped off... You'd think they were being honest with you. The majority of your clients aren't a crueler species and they'd extend you the grace you'd extend anyone.
The move is one email. You've already written it a hundred times, because it's the same one you send when the scope changes. You just exempt yourself when the misquote is yours. So stop exempting yourself!
"Before we go any further, I want to flag something. When I scoped this, I under-budgeted. It's more involved than the fee I originally quoted. The corrected fee is $X. Here's what I missed: ___. I'd rather tell you now than surprise you at delivery."
That's the whole thing. You owned it, you gave the reason, you named the number, and you did it before the work was finished instead of eating it after. No groveling. No five paragraphs of apology. Clients don't need you to be perfect. They need you to be clear!
You're allowed to change your mind. Nobody hired you on the condition that you'd nail every quote on the first try; that's a standard you (and I) invented and then used to punish yourself. Send the email you already know how to send, and charge what the work is worth.
This week's tool: The Letter Drafter - writes the re-quote in your own words, owns the misquote, names the new number. thereframe.co/tools/letter-drafter
The boundary is the service.
- Rebecca
Got a boundary you wish you could hold?
———
More from Rebecca: rdriscollcpa.com · AI Lab for Accountants · The Collaboration Room · Fix Your Firm